18polluterssewagelicensesseized
From: Shenzhen Daily
Updated: 2007-09-03 00:09
EIGHTEEN Shenzhen companies have had their sewage licenses revoked for polluting the environment during the past eight months, the environment watchdog said Saturday.
Ten among the 18 were ordered to publish a letter of remorse and apologize in local newspapers.
Most of the named and shamed companies were punished for discharging untreated water.
The environmental protection bureau"s spokesman said the authority expects to reduce industrial pollution further with similar severe punishment.
"We are reminding other manufacturers that all polluters have to pay for their mistakes, and none of them can escape by chance," he said.
The environmental protection bureau said it will publicize polluters every quarter.
More than 70 pollution whistleblowers have received a cash reward for reporting factories that have illegally discharged sewage or other chemical contaminants. One of the 73 received a 5,000-yuan (US$658) cash reward after reporting a factory in Longgang District which was illegally discharging sewage.
The bureau raised its maximum reward from 5,000 yuan to 100,000 yuan in May. Initially it had been just 500 yuan.
More than 1,442 companies were fined around 34 million yuan during the past eight months, a 65 percent increase on last year.